We must hold John White accountable for charter schools
In October of 2013, Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to authorize five charter schools in Lafayette Parish. These BESE appeal charters are called Type 2. State Superintendent John White and the Louisiana Department of Education are tasked with oversight of the new, unelected boards and the contracts they enter into with the charter management companies, Charter Schools USA and National Heritage Academies, to run the schools. Central to the contract is the requirement that the charters meet an at-risk enrollment target that mirrors the state average of at-risk students in public schools. That percentage of at-risk youth, defined mostly through family income levels (free/reduced lunch qualifications) is currently at 66.9 percent.
A review of the state’s official Oct. 1 enrollment count for the three schools opened on opposite ends of Lafayette Parish reveals an alarming trend: a clear re-segregation along racial and economic lines. The charter school in Youngsville, managed by CSUSA, is far below the target of serving 66.9 percent at-risk children: only 30 percent of its school’s population falls within the income levels for at-risk children. This school now tops the list of public schools in Lafayette Parish with the smallest population of at-risk children. The Louisiana Department of Education has yet to enforce the terms of the contract and address the significant deviation from the requirement for socioeconomic diversity of the school.
Taxpayers are paying a premium to operate charter schools. Our dollars are being redistributed by the Department of Education from our locally managed schools to the charter management companies that profit from the arrangement. The multi-million budget deficits in the Lafayette Parish School System over the last two years present ample evidence of the negative impact this relationship generates. The financial strain on schools across Lafayette Parish makes the at-risk enrollment requirement critical. The statutory intent of charters schools is to provide innovative laboratories for the education of at-risk children in need of special services to close the achievement gap. Children living in poverty require services in our schools that children living in more affluent environments often receive elsewhere. To force the appropriation of limited tax dollars in a way that threatens equity in our public school system is something we as a community must address.
We need to hold Superintendent White and the Louisiana Department of Education accountable to the taxpayers of Lafayette Parish and the at-risk youth we are charged with educating.We must hold John White accountable for charter schools:
— Kathleen Espinoza is a Lafayette parent and a member of Power of Public Education Lafayette.